


I’ve Got to Get You On My String

by kkslover9



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-28 03:15:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10822587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kkslover9/pseuds/kkslover9
Summary: Business man Iker meets cute much younger barista Marcelo. Cuteness ensues.





	I’ve Got to Get You On My String

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ascience](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ascience/gifts).



> Thank you to the lovely Kaixo for the beta.

Iker doesn’t look forward to change. He tries his best to keep everything foolproof and when he finds something that works, he sticks with it. It’s near impossible for him to function without his morning coffee. He’s tried coffee from dozens of shops and even tried to brew at home, but nothing comes close to his usual coffee shop, an old family-run establishment two blocks from his apartment building that also serves light dishes. The coffee is bitter with just enough natural sweetness that it’s not just painful to drink. The chats with the friendly staff and the old man owner also contribute he thinks. That’s why it’s so distressing when he finds out that they were closing at the beginning of the summer. The owner smiles at him and shrugs, resigned. He’s old, he says, and none of his children want to take over the place.

The first thing Iker does when he gets to the office of the advertising consultancy firm where he works is tell his secretary, Sergio about his predicament. 

Sergio just nods listening as the usually calm Iker gives him an overview of the history of the coffee shop—opened in 1957 as a dream of a local entrepreneur—and what makes the coffee so extraordinary—fair trade coffee beans from Columbia, not just your regular cafecito round the corner—, which is why the situation is such a tragic loss to Miami. When he’s done, Iker feels surprisingly light and calm, even though he’s sure Sergio doesn’t share in his sadness.

Sergio puts the files he came in with on Iker’s desk. “Xabi says these need your signature before the end of the day. And don’t forget you have lunch with Raúl at 11:30 in that French place in the Brickell.”

Iker nods and opens the manila folder to look through the documents. 

Sergio leans over the desk and grabs a pen from Iker’s holder. He takes a post-it with an old note from the day before and writes down an address, then draws a tiny map, circling the location of whatever building it is. 

“Try here. I dunno if it’s as magical as the coffee little old Italian men make, but it’s pretty good,” Sergio says handing him the post-it. “The baristas are pretty cute too,” he says with a wink.

Iker looks at the paper suspiciously. He’s not sure taking recommendations from Sergio is the best idea. It’s probably some flashy, uncomfortable place in the art district trying to pass off average coffee as elite. 

Sergio sighs, rolling his eyes. “Just try it, Iker. If it’s that bad, I’ll buy you lunch as an apology.”

“Or pay my medical bills?” 

Sergio smiles wryly. “Or that.”

Iker chuckles and stuffs the paper into his jacket pocket. It’s worth a try.

 

The shop is further than his regular was, but not so out of the way that he feels inconvenienced. It’s in the in a young part of the city, known to attract students, with its art galleries and trendy restaurants. He wonders why Sergio knows about this place, but then remembers that the baristas are supposed to be cute and figures Sergio would be the type to hang out there trying to pick up college kids. He shakes his head amused as he parks on the street across from the shop. Iker frowns as he crosses the street to the doors of “The Smiling Barista.” No wonder Sergio didn’t bother to write down that ridiculous name. He lets out an annoyed groan but goes in anyway. He holds the door open for two college-aged, who are so absorbed in their conversation that they don’t spare him a glance or thank-you, as if the door opened on its own. 

There’s a long line, but he waits because that might be a good sign. The shop is warm with sofas and big armchairs in different shades of brown and deep red that don’t quite match and run down tables that look like they found them on craigslist. There’s a strange kind of swirling mural on the walls that makes Iker slightly dizzy when he stares at it. Every seat is occupied by customers under twenty-five, lounging and talking as though they have no worries. It’s the type of place he would normally never think of setting foot into and he feels self-conscious in his suit, fidgeting as he waits in line, though no one so much as looks at him.

The boy at the register grins at him widely, cheerfully asking for his order. Iker’s not sure he’s ever seen anyone this energetic so early in the morning. He would chalk it up to youth, but he was never much of a morning person, even when he was young. Iker smiles back politely.

“A large black coffee,” he says.

The boy takes a marker and scrawls something on a paper cup. His face is focused as he writes and Iker can’t help but watch him. He’s small and dark with big, curly hair pulled back from his forehead with a white headband. Iker runs his hand through his own thinning hair automatically then frowns at himself for it. 

“Can I have your name?”

“Iker.”

The boy looks up surprised and seems to look closely at Iker, before he shakes his head and write the name on the cup and passing it along.

“Is that all?” the boy asks, still smiling. Before Iker can reply, he points over to a pile of brownies and his smile stretches a little more; something Iker hadn’t thought possible. “You should try one.”

Iker shakes his head but the boy insists. 

“They’re seriously amazing,” he says, stretching out the second “A” for emphasis. 

Iker looks at the brownies for a second too long and the boy grabs one up with a tissue and places it in a bag. Iker stares open-mouthed, as the boy rings up his orders and sighs, thinking of all the customers behind him, and gives in.

 

“It's good, right?“ Sergio asks as he walks into Iker's office. He has a smug look on his face though Iker hasn’t answered him yet.

Iker nods. The coffee isn’t the same as his old shop but it’s pretty good. Strong but not so much that he can’t drink it, which was the problem in a lot of other shops.

“I told you! And you complained that my advice is terrible.”

“That's because it usually is.” He takes the fax that Sergio hands him and holds it in front of him waiting for Sergio to leave so he can read it.

“Ah, stop being such a sore loser.” He grins widely in satisfaction.

“I should have hired a more respectful secretary.”

Sergio ignores him and picks up the bag from the coffee shop sitting on his desk, giving him a curious look.

“It's a brownie. They recommended it.”

“Marcelo actually got you?”

“Marcelo?”

“He works there in the mornings,” Sergio explains, still staring at the bag and shaking his head. “But he's cute. I understand.”

Iker frowns. “I didn't buy it because of that. I—”

Sergio laughs and leaves, waving away whatever Iker is about to say.

 

“You should have told me you were Sergio's friend,” Marcelo laughs as he writes Iker's order onto the cup the next day. “I wouldn't have tried to sell you the brownie.”

Iker shrugs.

“How was it?” he asks, taking Iker's change from the register.

He hadn’t planned on eating it. He doesn’t even like sweets and it wasn’t even that good, but he picked at it in the afternoon while he read though some reports from the section managers below him then it was gone. “Well, I'm still alive.” 

Marcelo bursts out laughing. Iker notices the way his eyes crinkle up at the sides.

 

“Marcelo thinks you’re funny,” Sergio says, dropping some files onto Iker's desk.

“What?” Iker asks, looking through the papers.

“Marcelo. He thinks you’re funny.” Sergio leans against his desk watching him closely, as if expecting some specific reaction.

“What does that have to do with anything?” He frowns at Sergio.

“Nothing. I was just telling you. That's all.” 

Iker rolls his eyes at the small curve at the side of Sergio's mouth.

 

Marcelo takes the cup and starts writing without Iker saying anything. 

“You know you can get flavoured coffee.” He rests the cup in front of him instead of passing it on.

Iker looks at him suspiciously. “And what's the point of that?”

“It just tastes better, you know?” Marcelo gives him a look as though he's supposed to understand exactly what he's saying.

“I'm don't drink coffee because it tastes good,” Iker points out. 

“Yeah but if it did, it would be the best of both worlds, right?” He flashes him a million dollar smile.

“I'm all right.”

Marcelo frowns and scrawls something else along the cup and passes it along.

When Iker's getting into the elevator of his building, he sees ‘BORING’ written across the side of his cup. He doesn't have a proper retort when Sergio tells him his mouth is going to tear if he continues smiling so hard.

 

“I don't appreciate being called boring, you know?” Iker tells Marcelo the next day.

“I'm just telling the truth,” he says trying to keep back a smile and failing. 

Iker smiles as well. 

“Well, do you want to not be boring yet?”

Iker looks at him seriously for a moment and Marcelo looks back, cup and marker in hand ready.

“What type of flavours do you have?”

Marcelo grins.

 

“Hazelnut?” Sergio asks staring at the cup sitting on the desk.

Iker frowns and ignores him.

“Did Marcelo recommend that too?”

Iker refuses to look up at Sergio's face but he can feel the smirk burn into his cheeks before Sergio drops whatever he came for onto the desk and leaves.

 

Marcelo isn’t there the next day when Iker goes in and he actually feel disappointment, not a little but a lot. He’s quickly become fond of that bushy haired boy, he realizes. He not sure whether he likes that he’s becoming so accustomed to this hipster shop and it’s morning barista but apparently it’s happening even if he can’t figure out his own feelings.

He just gets his coffee black. The flavor wasn’t bad but the syrup made it a bit too sweet for him. He wonders if Marcelo would try to get him to sample another flavour but that won’t be happening this morning. A bit more disappointment settles in.

 

Iker usually abstains from coffee on the weekend and drinks tea instead, unless he has to go into the office which he tries not to let happen often. It doesn’t have as much caffeine so he finds he can rest a bit more since he works late hours most days. 

On Monday when he sees Marcelo behind the register, he feels relief and is smiling when he makes it to the front of the line. 

“I missed you Friday,” he says.

Marcelo looks surprised for a moment but then his face bursts into a wide grin, looking a bit more excited than usual. “I normally have Fridays off. I was thinking about telling you but I wasn’t sure whether you would care, but I’m glad you do.” The grin calms into something softer with eyes narrowed slightly and a lack of teeth that Iker finds more genuine than the usual upbeat persona and he feels privileged to be able to witness it aimed at himself.

He looks at his cup outside, too embarrassed to do it in store and have Marcelo see him looking expectantly for his message. “I missed you too,” is written on the opposite side of the order. He grins to himself and takes a sip then holds the cup gently in both hands as if he can absorb the message into his being. Maybe Marcelo is cute as Sergio suggests with his soft looking big hair and boyish face, but Iker attributes this fondness to new friendship rather than a crush. Besides, he can’t imagine having a crush on someone so much younger.

 

The next week goes well. Iker is enjoying his coffee shop and work is moving smoothly. The big contract they had is finally completed and so life is calmer for a few days, maybe a week until it gets hectic again. So Iker tries to catch up on sleep by going home early. Sometimes he wishes he had picked a nicer career like a librarian, something where you go home at the end of a 9 -5 shift and can pick up a hobby. His hobby is being pretentious about coffee, Sergio says when he mentions that he wished he had more time.

He never misses his coffee, though he does miss Marcelo on Fridays. Marcelo is sweet. His smiles always turn soft and genuine when he sees Iker, which always makes Iker smile as well. 

“Iker!”

Iker’s just exited the coffee shop and is heading back to his car when he hears his name called. He turns around and it’s Marcelo who looks a bit scared, eyes wide and chest rising and falling rapidly.

“Are you all right?” Iker says.

Marcelo nods quickly, hair shaking with the movement. There’s a bit of silence but then he glances back into the store where he’s supposed to still be working and he speaks. “I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime.”

“Hang out?” Iker says, parroting Marcelo’s words slightly confused.

Marcelo runs a hand over his hair and looks down at the ground. “I mean, do you want to go out with me sometime.”

Iker’s mouth drops open in shock. He doesn’t have a clue what to say. Marcelo was asking him out. He hadn’t even thought about something like this before. Or maybe he had just a bit but ignored it because really Marcelo is so young and Iker never really thought there was anything behind those smiles.

Marcelo seems to panic in Iker’s silence. “I’m sorry. Forget it,” he says dashing back into the shop and leaving a still shocked Iker.

 

Iker gets to the office later than usual. Luckily he doesn’t have to sign in. He ignores Sergio as he walks into his office but his secretary follows him into the room.

“What do you mean you turned down Marcelo?” Sergio says as soon as the door closes.

How Sergio’s already heard this news only thirty minutes after it has happened, Iker doesn’t even want to know.

“I didn’t turn him down,” Iker says, defensively.

“You said nothing. That is basically turning him down. And to think I encouraged him. If I’d known he was just gonna get heartbroken I would have warned him off.”

“You encouraged him? Sergio he can’t be more than what, 23?” Iker says.

“Is that what you’re worried about? He doesn’t care if you’re fifty. He likes you. And I thought you liked him,” Sergio says.

“I need a more respectful secretary,” Iker says in a mumble as he looks at the documents already spread across his desk.

“He’d be good for you. Get you out and having fun instead of working all the time.”

Sergio’s words are met with silence. Iker continues to ignore him so he shakes his head and leaves the room.

Iker drops the documents he’s holding and buries his face in his hands, sighing deeply. He did like Marcelo and he thought he was cute but he couldn’t get over dating someone so young. He would eventually realise that Iker was a boring old man and leave him. Besides, Iker’s like was work and that was no good in a relationship. It wasn’t that he wanted to be alone forever but he wasn’t delusional. He didn’t really have time for a relationship.

Or was he just making excuses?

Iker drinks coffee from home the next day. It’s not as delicious as the coffee at “The Smiling Barista” but it doesn’t come with a smiling, enthusiastic brown boy so that’s good enough. Sergio is very work oriented. He delivers Iker’s messages without joking with him throughout the day. His voice is business-like when he transfers calls through. As much as Iker says he wants a respectful secretary, he does like that Sergio comes with a certain level of silliness.

“Sergio stop acting like that,” Iker says after lunch and a half day with a robot.

“Stop acting how, Mr. Casillas?”

Iker groans at the name. Sergio hasn’t called him Mr. Casillas in private since their first few months together. All he had to do to get his assistant back was accept a date with a cute college student. Anyone who heard that would probably laugh their ass off and call Iker crazy for not accepting. But Iker didn’t want to go out with someone just to get Sergio back on his side. That would be unfair to Marcelo. 

Iker goes home after working late for no reason other than he doesn’t want to go home and face his thoughts. He keeps thinking about Marcelo and his excited eyes and sweet smile and about the fact that maybe a date wouldn’t be so bad. The worst that could happen was that it didn’t work out. That was a heavy worst and rejection by a younger man scared him for some reason. Why didn’t he just take a chance? The best that could happen was that he would have an adorable energetic boyfriend with great hair.

The next day is Friday so Iker has another day to think about whether he wants to go out with Marcelo at least once. The more he thinks about it, the more it seems like Marcelo would be good fun to be around. He finds himself wondering how it would be to kiss him and that seals it. Maybe he does want to try this after all. Maybe something good will come from his first date in at least two years.

“Does Marcelo work on Saturdays?” Iker says to Sergio when he comes into his office in the morning.

Sergio looks at him suspiciously. “Yeah,” he answers.

It’s noticeably casual and Iker thinks maybe he understands why he wants to see Marcelo.

“I’m glad you thought about it,” Sergio says with a smile. “It’ll be great. I would date him myself but his type is old boring business men apparently.”

Iker rolls his eyes smiling, glad to have the old Sergio back.

 

It’s early on Saturday when Iker makes it to the coffee shop. He gets there before it opens and manages to get a park close to the entrance so he can scope it out for when Marcelo arrives. Iker actually isn’t sure when he works today. He forgot to ask Sergio that much but he’s ready for an all-day stake out if necessary. Mostly because he’s got nothing better to do at the moment.

Marcelo comes up to the store before it opens with another of the baristas that Iker recognises. They probably both have an opening shift. Iker gets out of the car and stands awkwardly on the sidewalk hoping Marcelo will notice him. Luckily, the guy he’s with points down to Iker, so that Marcelo’s attention turns toward him. Marcelo looks hesitant to come over but the guy gives him a light push. Marcelo says something to him that makes him laugh but then walks over slowly to Iker.

“Iker, did you want something?” Marcelo says, looking around at everything but Iker’s face.

Iker sighs. Marcelo looks so uncomfortable to be talking to him. “I just wanted to ask if you wanted to go out sometime.”

Marcelo looks confused. His gaze meet Iker’s face for the first time, forehead furrowed and eyes searching Iker’s countenance.

“I’m sorry about before,” Iker says, “I was more shocked than anything that you would think to ask me out at all.”

Marcelo blushes, facing his head down and resting his hand on the back of his neck. “Sergio said that you thought I was cute so I thought it would be ok.”

“Sergio wasn’t exactly wrong. I do think you’re cute,” Iker says.

Marcelo smiles that soft smile that Iker loves to see, but there’s a new shyness to it this time. He walks up to Iker and wraps his arms around him suddenly. “I would love to go out with you.”

Iker wraps his own arms about Marcelo. He’s fitter than Iker imagined. Not as soft in the body as Iker expected. He’s lean and muscular and Iker thinks that is good too. 

Marcelo pulls away after a minute and gives Iker a bright smile. “Come inside. I’ll get you some coffee and give you my number so we can message about our date.” His bright smile turns into an outright grin.

Smiling back, Iker nods and follows Marcelo into the shop.


End file.
